The Ballad of Ben Carson

Working your way up from poverty to a position as one of America's top pediatric neurosurgeons ought to be quite enough for one person's lifetime. So now Dr. Ben (The Blade) Carson can go back to that part of his life and stop worrying about why nobody's asking him to make dick jokes in political debates any more.

"I do not see a political path forward in light of last evening's Super Tuesday primary results. However, this grassroots movement on behalf of 'We the People' will continue," Carson said in the statement. Carson said that he will skip Thursday's GOP debate in his hometown of Detroit and will formally address his political future during a speech on Friday at CPAC in the Washington area, but he left no doubt that his quest for the Republican nomination had come to an end.

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There was a time, and not so long ago, in which people were writing about how Carson's path forward was a particularly well-lit one, in no small part because of the obvious joke that was the Trump campaign. And it is true that, until he decided to leap into political life by being rude to the president at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013, Carson had led a remarkable life. But politics is a hard jones to kick, especially when you and everyone around you is making a better than nice living at the job of being a candidate, and I fear that what comes next will be certain government agencies looking carefully for signs of grift in what was the Carson campaign.

If that's the case, it will be ugly and the doctor's reputation will take a far more serious hit than it took when he was simply a losing presidential candidate. Just because you know your way around other people's brains doesn't mean you know how to use your own.